Wednesday 16 January 2013

UK Tests Show 4G to be Unreliable

By Saul Saresi


Major tests just carried out into the quality and reliability of the new 4G network from EE - recently introduced in Manchester and ten other cities across the UK - has found that the coverage is a long way short of what it should be.

Currently the new system is active in 11 cities across the UK, but the tests were only carried out in Manchester - the largest city where the system is currently active. Reports show that nearly 60% of the city centre population were unable to log on to the new network.

The news comes as a significant set back to newly christened service providers Everything Everywhere - formerly Orange - as Bill Moore (RootMetrics' Chief Executive) explains: "Our testing clearly shows that 4G connections are not consistent, even within a nominated area - despite being significantly faster than any other network currently in the UK."

"Although Everything Everywhere's 4G service is faster than any other network currently available in the UK, our recent testing has confirmed that the connections are in no way consistent even within a nominated area". He went on to explain the importance of customers being aware of this issue and to not expect the fast connection speeds the otherwise would have.

And it turned out that as soon as you stepped outside of the city centre things got infinitely worse, with customers not being able to access any 4G coverage whatsoever - although much faster connections were available once inside.

However Mr Moore believes that in spite of the problems highlighted by the report, the 1800Mhz spectrum has proven to be successful: "You would never get the indoor speeds we have seen without 4G. The figures are far in excess of what 3G is capable of on average".

But Vodafone and O2 are now hot on the heels of EE and are could roll out their own 4G services as early as next May next year, after Ofcom announced that the hotly anticipated Spectrum auction will take place in January 2013, with licences being granted in February and March.

All of which is good news for the consumer, as we will soon have competition for providing the best, quickest and most reliable 4G service at the lowest price. As for whether or not EE sort their problems in time to be competitive, who knows. But the future for Voip systems and technologies - and in particular mobile Voip systems - certainly looks bright.




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